Catalonia Receives New Blue Tongue Vaccine Batch as Campaign Nears Completion
Catalonia’s Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and Food has received a new batch of blue tongue disease vaccinations containing one million doses, enabling veterinary teams to continue the final phase of the vaccination campaign. The full completion of the program is targeted for the first quarter of 2025.
Rosa Altisent, Director-General of Agriculture and Livestock, explained that over 88% of the total sheep population has now been vaccinated. "We’ve vaccinated 2,239 herds and 225,241 animals, with only a few farms in the southern regions remaining, where no cases have been detected," she clarified.
With 558,000 bovine heads in Catalonia, over 180,000 have received the full two-dose vaccination, spanning three weeks apart.
The first focus of serotype 8 blue tongue was declared on June 10, 2024, notifying the Veterinary Health Alert Network (RASVE). Since then, 374 foci have been detected.
Altisent attributed the containment of the disease to the vaccination strategy, which initially prioritized high-incidence areas and ovine populations. She confirmed that the disease’s current incidence is very low, with scarcely any new cases, thus stabilizing the situation.
Blue tongue is a viral disease that affects domestic and wild ruminants, transmitted animal-to-animal via vectors such as biting midges, not through direct contact. It’s not contagious to humans. The severity varies depending on the species and serotype, but meat, milk, and derived products remain safe for consumption.